Civil and Political Rights
According to Article 1§1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights include the following rights:
- The right of self-determination
- The right to life, to be free of arbitrarily deprivation of his life
- The right to be free of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- The right to be free of slavery and slave-trade
- The right to liberty and security of person, to be free of arbitrary arrest or detention
- The right of all persons deprived of their liberty to be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person
- The right to be free of imprisonment merely on the ground of inability to fulfill a contractual obligation
- The right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence, for everyone lawfully within the territory of a State
- The right to be equal before the courts and tribunals
- The right to be free of guiltiness of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed
- The right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law
- The right to the protection of the law against arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, and against unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation
- The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
- The right to freedom of expression, to hold opinions without interference
- The right to peaceful assembly
- The right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests
- The right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family, with the free and full consent of the intending spouses
- The right of every child to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State
- The right of every citizens to take part in the conduct of public affairs, to vote and to be elected, and to have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country
- The right of all persons to be equal before the law and to be entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law
- The right of the persons belonging to minorities not be denied, in community with the others members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.
Civil and political rights form the original and main part of international human rights. They comprise the first portion of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (with economic, social and cultural rights comprising the second portion). The theory of three generations of human rights considers this group of rights to be "first-generation rights", and the theory of negative and positive rights considers them to be generally negative rights.
T.H. Marshall Notes that civil rights were among the first to be recognized and codified, followed later by political rights and still later by social rights. In many countries, they are constitutional rights and are included in a bill of rights or similar document. They are also defined in international human rights instruments, such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Justice, Human rights, Geneva, geneva4justice, GICJ, Geneva International Centre For Justice
